What is the world going to do when Bob Barker dies/retires? He has been the most dependable person in my life- every morning for 35 years I knew where he would be. He has outlived two announcers, (I am not sure who the current announcer is, but the old ones were Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy), numerous games, and what seems like hundreds of showcase showgirls.
Tsunami Videos
Here is a torrent stream for all the tsunami videos, via Jordon Golson. Damned frightening.
If you have not donated and want to, I would recommend doing so through Scrappleface. That is where I chose to donate, although you can also give through Amazon.
Back
I am not dead, and I should resume blogging tomorrow. Lots of things to talkabout, but for right now, let me officially declare that I would not piss on Markos if he were on fire.
I Beg To Differ
Via the Instapundit, accusations of hypocrisy on the art of Rush Limbaugh:
Not being a cigar aficionado, I have no idea what the hell Rush is talking about, except that he took the opportunity of a visit to London to break US sanctions against importing products of Communist Cuba.
Hunh? The US embargo dictates what individuals must do in England?
Now as a democrat/democratic socialist, I make an effort not to buy items produced in countries whose governments repress free trade unions. With China seemingly manufacturing most of the world’s goods these days, that’s getting harder and harder, but I try. But I’d like to believe that even if I was a cigar aficionado, I would resist the temptation to puff on a Cuban stogie as long as the Castro regime forbids the island’s cigar workers from freely organizing and striking.
So does this mean that on the Cuban-cigar issue, I’m (shudder) to the right of Rush Limbaugh?
No, it just means you have never smoked a good cigar.
How to Steal an Election, Pt. 2
The Democrats continue their theft in broad daylight:
After a bitter and protracted recount fight in the Washington governor’s race, elections officials announced Wednesday that the Democratic candidate, Christine O. Gregoire, was leading her Republican opponent by 10 votes – a minuscule margin but a stunning reversal of the Nov. 2 election results.
The preliminary results elated Democratic Party officials and came only hours after the party scored another victory, when the State Supreme Court agreed with the Democrats’ contention that more than 700 newly discovered and erroneously disqualified ballots in heavily Democratic King County should now be considered.
Since those ballots came from a county where Ms. Gregoire, 57, already had a solid lead, the ruling could allow her to increase her extraordinarily tiny edge in a race that is the closest in state history and one of the closest in the nation’s history.
The day’s events dealt a serious blow to state Republicans and Dino Rossi, 45, a businessman and former state senator, who had been certified the winner of the Nov. 2 vote after eking out a margin of 261 votes out of almost three million cast. He later won a machine recount by 42 votes.
Got it, now? Demand a recount, then run around and contact only Demcrats who have challenged ballots. Then ‘find’ some uncounted ballots in King County. Demand another recount. Shit. Still short. Recanvas, find some more ballots in King County. Insist on hand recount, despite it being much less reliable. Just in case you still don’t have the lead, make sure there are a couple hundred more King County ballots ‘found.’
This was their vision for Florida in 2000. This is what they wanted in Ohio this year. At least the Republicans are fighting back:
Whatever the final results, they are almost certain to be contested.
“This count, this election, is not over,” said Chris Vance, the chairman of the state Republican Party. The Supreme Court, he said, “basically threw the door open to start all over again. I think that’s crazy.”
He said Republicans planned to “show up at 9 a.m.” on Thursday “on the doorstep of every county auditor with people whose votes weren’t counted for Dino Rossi.”
Again- ‘count every vote’ really means ‘count thevotes until the Democrat wins.’
BTW- why do the Democrats feel so confident with the results of the third recount? Why should this one be considered accurate and final? The first two weren’t.
The Death of Christmas
I have to say I am with Matt on this whole ‘death of Christmas’ nonsense. Why all these ‘free market’ conservatives can not understand that a department store may have employees say “Happy Holidays” instead of ‘Merry Christmas’ is beyond me. They do so to be inclusive of all religions, thereby not offfending anyone, and thus maximizing the bottom line.
You see, it is not that they hate the baby jesus, you poor oppressed Christians. They just love the bottom line more.
And if the meaning of Christmas is cheapened for you because everyone you greet during a select 6 week period does not return a heart ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS,’ I might sugest you are missing the point of the holy day.
BTW- If this sort of thing does offend your delicate Christian sensibilities, let me issue a firm warning. Do not look into the pagan rituals you are eagerly engaging in, like cutting down a tree and decorating it, hanging a shrub in your hallway to kiss underneath, hanging other shrubs over your fireplace and above doors, placing wreaths on your door, the star worship, etc. And for the love of everything holy, you better not google Saturnis.
In short, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and the others are all about faith- yours, and I, for one, was unaware that you needed unanimous consensus in order to have faith. Now stfu and have a Happy Holidays.
What is the Goal?
Read this snippet from Matt Yglesias:
I’m not quite sure I grasp what’s supposed to be going on here. Most notably peace has not, in fact, broken out between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The hopeful signs we’re seeing lately are just signs that we may see a return to peace talks. But of course the failure to have such talks is precisely what critics of the Bush Israel policy have been criticizing Bush for. The proximate cause of all this is that with Arafat dead, the Bush/Sharon policy of not negotiating with Arafat is non-operative. But if Bush and Sharon had never adopted that policy, we could have had hopeful talks years ago. Maybe those talks would have come to nothing, but maybe (indeed, I would say “probably”) they will still come to nothing now.
It appears that to Matt, what is really important are peace talks- not the outcome of any such talks, but the peace talks themselves.
The reason there have been no peace talks in ther past several years is because Sharon and Bush realized, from the 30 years of experience Arafat has provided them, that Arafat was a bad actor and would never follow through with any peace talks. It really isn’t that hard to grasp- ask Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, or anyone else on the planet.
Continuing to harangue Bush because there were no Israeli/Palestinian peace talks recently shows me what is really important to some critics- peace talks, and not real peace.